UCSB    LIBRARY 
X- 


THE  MEANING 
OF  THE  WAR 


THE  MEANING 
OF    THE   WAR 

LIFE   &   MATTER    IN    CONFLICT 

BY  HENRI  BERGSON 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

H.  WILDON  CARR 


NEW   YORK 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


CONTENTS 


FAGS 


INTRODUCTION  7 

LIFE  AND  MATTER  AT  WAR  15 

THE   FORCE   WHICH  WASTES  AND 

THAT  WHICH  DOES  NOT  WASTE  41 


INTRODUCTION 


INTRODUCTION 

THIS  little  volume  contains  the  discourse 
delivered  by  M.  Bejgson  as  President  of  the 
Academic  des  Sciences  Morales  et  Politiques 
at  its  annual  public  meeting  on  December  1 2, 
1914.  It  is  the  address  which  preceded  the 
announcement  of  the  prizes  and  awards  be- 
stowed  by  the  Academy.  It  is  now  issued  in 
book  form  with  the  consent  of  the  author,  and 
his  full  appreciation  of  the  object,  to  give  it 
the  widest  circulation.  Although  it  is  brief, 
it  is  a  message  addressed  directly  to  the  heart 
of  our  people  in  the  crisis  of  war.  To  it  is 
added  a  short  article  on  the  same  theme, 
contributed  to  the  Bulletin  des  Armies  de  la 
R£publique>  November  4,  1914. 


xo  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

It  has  been  said  that  war,  with  all  its  terrible 
evils,  is  the  occasion  of  at  least  one  good  which 
humanity  values  as  above  price:  it  inspires 
great  poetry.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems 
to  crush  philosophy.  Many  may  think  that  in 
this  message  it  is  poetry  to  which  M.  Bergson 
is  giving  expression.  It  is,  however,  from  the 
depth  of  his  philosophy  that  the  inspiration  is 
drawn.  The  full  significance  of  the  doctrines 
he  has  been  teaching,  and  their  whole  moral 
and  political  bearing,  are  brought  into  clear 
light,  focussed,  as  it  were,  on  the  actual 
present  struggle.  Yet  is  there  no  word  that 
breathes  hatred  to  any  person  or  to  any 
race.  It  is  by  the  triumph  of  a  spiritual 
principle  that  philosophy  may  hope  to  free 
humanity  from  the  oppression  of  a  materialist 
doctrine. 

The  opposing  principle  has  had,  and  still 
has,  philosophers  to  defend  it,  and  they 
belong  to  no  particular  nation  or  race.  One 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  n 

of  its  most  brilliant  and  influential  exponents 
was  a  Frenchman,  the  diplomatist,  Comte 
Joseph  Arthur  de  Gobineau  (1816-1882).  A 
brief  word  on  this  remarkable  man  may  help 
the  reader  to  understand  the  mention  of 
his  name  on  page  30.  His  Essai  sur 
I'intgalite*  des  races  humaines  (1855)  was  tne 
first  of  a  series  of  writings  to  affirm,  on 
ethnological  grounds,  the  superiority  of  the 
Aryan  race,  and  its  right  and  destiny  by 
reason  of  that  superiority  to  rule  all  other 
races  as  bondsmen.  He  was  the  friend 
of  Wagner,  and  also  of  Nietzsche.  Madame 
Forster-Nietzsche  in  her  biography  of  her 
brother  has  spoken  of  the  almost  reverent 
regard  which  he  entertained  for  Gobineau, 
and  it  may  be  that  from  him  Nietzsche 
derived  the  idea  which  he  developed  into  his 
doctrine  of  the  non-morality  of  the  super- 
man. 

Were  the  discourse  of  M.  Bergson  no  more 


12  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

than  the  utterance  of  a  philosopher  stirred  by 
deep  patriotic  feeling  to  uphold  his  country's 
cause  and  denounce  his  country's  foes,  then, 
however  eloquent  its  appeal,  it  would  have  no 
significance  or  value  beyond  its  present  power 
to  inspire  courage  in  the  hearts  of  his  com- 
rades. And  it  would  not  differ  from  equally 
earnest  appeals  which  other  philosophers  have 
addressed  to  the  world  on  behalf  of  their 
fellow-countrymen.  It  has  a  much  deeper 
meaning.  It  is  no  mere  indictment  of  modern 
Germany's  rulers  or  people.  It  goes  to  the 
very  heart  of  the  problem  of  the  future  of 
humanity.  Shall  the  splendid  material  pro- 
gress which  has  marked  the  scientific  achieve- 
ment of  the  last  century  be  the  forging  of  a 
sword  to  destroy  the  freedom  which  life  has 
won  with  it  from  matter? 

As  these  words  are  written  the  conflict  is 
raging,  and  the  decision  seems  still  far  off. 
Death  is  striking  down  the  young  in  all  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  13 

nations,  and  among  them  many  on  whom  our 
highest  hopes  were  founded.  "  But  whatever 
be  the  price  of  victory,"  so  writes  M.  Bergson 
to  me,  "  it  will  not  have  been  too  dearly 
bought  if  humanity  is  finally  delivered  from 
the  nightmare  which  weighs  on  it." 

H.  WILDON  CARR 

LONDON,  May  1915 


LIFE  AND  MATTER 
AT  WAR 


LIFE  AND  MATTER 
AT  WAR 

"  COMPRENDRE  et  nc  pas  s'indigner  " :  this  has 
been  said  to  be  the  last  word  of  philosophy. 
I  believe  none  of  it;  and,  had  I  to  choose, 
I  should  much  prefer,  when  in  presence  of 
crime,  to  give  my  indignation  rein  and  not 
to  understand.  Happily,  the  choice  has  not 
to  be  made.  On  the  contrary,  there  are 
forms  of  anger  which,  by  a  thorough  com- 
prehension of  their  objects,  derive  the  force 
to  sustain  and  renew  their  vigour.  Our 
anger  is  of  that  kind.  We  have  only  to 
detach  the  inner  meaning  of  this  war,  and 
our  horror  for  those  who  made  it  will  be  in- 
creased. Moreover,  nothing  is  easier.  A 
little  history,  and  a  little  philosophy,  will 
suffice. 

17  c 


1 8  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

For  a  long  period  Germany  devoted  her- 
self to  poetry,  to  art,  to  metaphysic.  She 
was  made,  so  she  said,  for  thought  and 
imagination;  "she  had  no  feeling  for  the 
reality  of  things."  It  is  true  that  her  ad- 
ministration had  defects,  that  she  was 
divided  into  rival  states,  that  anarchy  at 
certain  times  seemed  beyond  remedy.  Never- 
theless, an  attentive  study  would  have  re- 
vealed, beneath  this  disorder,  the  normal 
process  of  life,  which  is  always  too  rank  at 
the  first  and  later  on  prunes  away  its  excess, 
makes  its  choice  and  adopts  a  lasting  form. 
From  her  municipal  activity  there  would  have 
issued  at  length  a  good  administration  which 
would  have  assured  order  without  suppress- 
ing liberty.  From  the  closer  union  of  the 
confederated  states  that  unity  in  diversity, 
which  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of  organized 
beings,  would  have  arisen.  But  time  was 
needed  for  that,  as  it  always  is  needed  by  life, 
in  order  that  its  possibilities  may  be  realized. 
Now,  while  Germany  was  thus  working 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  19 

out  the  task  of  her  organic  self-development 
there  was  within  her,  or  rather  by  her  side, 
a  people  with  whom  every  process  tended  to 
take  a  mechanical  form.  Artificiality  marked 
the  creation  of  Prussia ;  for  she  was  formed 
by  clumsily  sewing  together,  edge  to  edge, 
provinces  cither  acquired  or  conquered. 
Her  administration  was  mechanical;  it  did 
its  work  with  the  regularity  of  a  well- 
appointed  machine.  Not  less  mechanical — 
extreme  both  in  precision  and  in  power — was 
the  army,  on  which  the  attention  of  the 
Hohenzollerns  was  concentrated.  Whether 
it  was  that  the  people  had  been  drilled  for 
centuries  to  mechanical  obedience;  or  that 
an  elemental  instinct  for  conquest  and  plunder, 
absorbing  to  itself  the  life  of  the  nation,  had 
simplified  its  aims  and  reduced  them  to 
materialism;  or  that  the  Prussian  character 
was  originally  so  made — it  is  certain  that  the 
idea  of  Prussia  always  evoked  a  vision  of 
rudeness,  of  rigidity,  of  automatism,  as  if 
everything  within  her  went  by  clockwork, 


20  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

from  the  gesture  of  her  kings  to  the  step  of 
her  soldiers. 

A  day  came  when  Germany  had  to  choose 
between  a  rigid  and  ready-made  system  of 
unification,  mechanically  superposed  from 
without,  and  the  unity  which  comes  from 
within  by  a  natural  effort  of  life.  At  the 
same  time  the  choice  was  offered  her  between 
an  administrative  mechanism,  into  which 
she  would  merely  have  to  fit  herself — a 
complete  order,  doubtless,  but  poverty- 
stricken,  like  everything  else  that  is  arti- 
ficial— and  that  richer  and  more  flexible 
order  which  the  wills  of  men,  when  freely 
associated,  evolve  of  themselves.  How  would 
she  choose  ? 

There  was  a  man  on  the  spot  in  whom  the 
methods  of  Prussia  were  incarnate — a  genius, 
I  admit,  but  an  evil  genius ;  for  he  was  devoid 
of  scruple,  devoid  of  faith,  devoid  of  pity,  and 
devoid  of  soul.  He  had  just  removed  the 
only  obstacle  which  could  spoil  his  plan;  he 
had  got  rid  of  Austria.  He  said  to  himself : 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  21 

"  We  are  going  to  make  Germany  take  over, 
along  with  Prussian  centralization  and  dis- 
cipline, all  our  ambitions  and  all  our  appetites. 
If  she  hesitates,  if  the  confederate  peoples  do 
not  arrive  of  their  own  accord  at  this  common 
resolution,  I  know  how  to  compel  them;   I 
will  cause  a  breath  of  hatred  to  pass  over 
them,  all  alike.     I  will  launch  them  against 
a  common  enemy,  an  enemy  we  have  hood- 
winked  and   waylaid,   and   whom   we    shall 
try  to  catch  unarmed.     Then  when  the  hour 
of  triumph  shall  sound,  I  will  rise  up ;  from 
Germany,  in  her  intoxication,  I  will  snatch 
a  covenant,  which,  like  that  of  Faust  with 
Mephistopheles,    she    has    signed    with    her 
blood,  and  by  which   she  also,  like   Faust, 
has  traded  her  soul  away  for  the  good  things 
of  earth." 

He  did  as  he  had  said.  The  covenant  was 
made.  But,  to  ensure  that  it  would  never  be 
broken,  Germany  must  be  made  to  feel,  for 
ever  and  ever,  the  necessity  of  the  armour  in 
which  she  was  imprisoned.  Bismarck  took 


22  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

his  measures  accordingly.  Among  the  con- 
fidences which  fell  from  his  lips  and  were 
gathered  up  by  his  intimates  is  this  revealing 
word:  "We  took  nothing  from  Austria  after 
Sadowa  because  we  wanted  to  be  able  one 
day  to  be  reconciled  with  her."  So,  then,  in 
taking  Alsace  and  a  part  of  Lorraine,  his  idea 
was  that  no  reconciliation  with  the  French 
would  be  possible.  He  intended  that  the 
German  people  should  believe  itself  in  per- 
manent danger  of  war,  that  the  new  Empire 
should  remain  armed  to  the  teeth,  and  that 
Germany,  instead  of  dissolving  Prussian 
militarism  into  her  own  life,  should  reinforce 
it  by  militarizing  herself. 

She  reinforced  it;  and  day  by  day  the 
machine  grew  in  complexity  and  power.  But 
in  the  process  it  yielded  automatically  a 
result  very  different  from  that  which  its 
constructors  had  foreseen.  It  is  the  story 
of  the  witch  who,  by  a  magic  incantation, 
had  won  the  consent  of  her  broomstick  to 
go  to  the  river  and  fill  her  buckets;  having 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  23 

no  formula  ready  to  check  the  work,  she 
watched  her  cave  fill  with  water  until  she 
was  drowned. 

The  Prussian  army  had  been  organized, 
brought  to  perfection,  tended  with  love  by  the 
Kings  of  Prussia,  in  order  that  it  might  serve 
their  lust  of  conquest.  To  take  possession  of 
neighbours'  territory  was  then  the  sole  aim; 
territory  was  almost  the  whole  of  the  national 
wealth.  But  with  the  nineteenth  century  there 
was  a  new  departure.  The  idea  peculiar  to 
that  century  of  diverting  science  to  the  satis- 
faction of  men's  material  wants  evoked  a 
development  of  industry,  and  consequently  of 
commerce,  so  extraordinary  that  the  old  con- 
ception of  wealth  was  completely  overthrown. 
Not  more  than  fifty  years  were  needed  to  bring 
about  this  transformation.  On  the  morrow  of 
the  war  of  1870  a  nation  expressly  made  for 
appropriating  the  good  things  of  this  world 
had  no  alternative  but  to  become  industrial 
and  commercial.  Not  on  that  account, 
however,  would  she  change  the  essential 


24  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

principle  of  her  action.  On  the  contrary,  she 
had  but  to  utilize  her  habits  of  discipline, 
method,  tenacity,  minute  care,  precise  in- 
formation— and,  we  may  add,  of  imperti- 
nence and  spying — to  which  she  owed  the 
growth  of  her  military  power.  She  would 
thus  equip  herself  with  industry  and  com- 
merce not  less  formidable  than  her  army,  and 
able  to  march,  on  their  part  also,  in  military 
order. 

From  that  time  onwards  these  two  were  seen 
going  forward  together,  advancing  at  an  even 
pace  and  reciprocally  supporting  each  other — 
industry,  which  had  answered  the  appeal  of 
the  spirit  of  conquest,  on  one  side;  on  the 
other,  the  army,  in  which  that  spirit  was 
incarnate,  with  the  navy,  which  had  just  been 
added  to  the  forces  of  the  army.  Industry 
was  free  to  develop  in  all  directions ;  but, 
from  the  first,  war  was  the  end  in  view.  In 
enormous  factories,  such  as  the  world  had 
never  seen,  tens  of  thousands  of  workmen 
toiled  in  casting  great  guns,  while  by  their 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  25 

side,  in  workshops  and  laboratories,  every 
invention  which  the  disinterested  genius  of 
neighbouring  peoples  had  been  able  to  achieve 
was  immediately  captured,  bent  from  its  in- 
tended use,  and  converted  into  an  engine  of 
war.  Reciprocally,  the  army  and  navy  which 
owed  their  growth  to  the  increasing  wealth  of 
the  nation,  repaid  the  debt  by  placing  their 
services  at  the  disposal  of  this  wealth :  they 
undertook  to  open  roads  for  commerce  and 
outlets  for  industry.  But  through  this  very 
combination  the  movement  imposed  on  Prussia 
by  her  kings,  and  on  Germany  by  Prussia, 
was  bound  to  swerve  from  its  course,  whilst 
gathering  speed  and  flinging  itself  forward. 
Sooner  or  later  it  was  bound  to  escape  from 
all  control  and  become  a  plunge  into  the 
abyss. 

For,  even  though  the  spirit  of  conquest 
knows  no  limit  in  itself,  it  must  limit  its 
ambitions  as  long  as  the  question  is  simply 
that  of  seizing  a  neighbour's  territory.  To 
constitute  their  kingdom,  kings  of  Prussia 


36  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

had  been  obliged  to  undertake  a  long  series 
of  wars.  Whether  the  name  of  the  spoiler  be 
Frederick  or  William,  not  more  than  one  or 
two  provinces  can  be  annexed  at  a  time :  to 
take  more  is  to  weaken  oneself.  But  suppose 
that  the  same  insatiable  thirst  for  conquest 
enters  into  the  new  form  of  wealth — what 
follows  ?  Boundless  ambition,  which  till  then 
had  spread  out  the  coming  of  its  gains  over 
indefinite  time,  since  each  one  of  them  would 
be  worth  only  a  definite  portion  of  space,  will 
now  leap  all  at  once  to  an  object  boundless  as 
itself.  Rights  will  be  set  up  on  every  point 
of  the  globe  where  raw  material  for  industry, 
refitting  stations  for  ships,  concessions  for 
capitalists,  or  outlets  for  production  are  seen 
to  exist.  In  fact,  the  policy  which  had  served 
Prussia  so  well  passed  at  a  bound  from  the 
most  calculating  prudence  to  the  wildest 
temerity.  Bismarck,  whose  common-sense 
put  some  restraint  on  the  logic  of  his  prin- 
ciples, was  still  averse  to  colonial  enterprises ; 
he  said  that  all  the  affairs  of  the  East  were 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  27 

not  worth  the  bones  of  one  Pomeranian 
grenadier.  But  Germany,  retaining  Bismarck's 
former  impulse,  went  straight  on  and  rushed 
forward  along  the  lines  of  least  resistance  to 
east  and  west :  on  the  one  side  lay  the  route 
to  the  Orient,  on  the  other  the  empire  of  the 
sea.  But  in  so  doing  she  virtually  declared 
war  on  the  nations  which  Bismarck  had 
managed  to  keep  allied  or  friendly.  Her 
ambition  looked  forward  to  the  domination 
of  the  world. 

Moreover,  there  was  no  moral  restraint 
which  could  keep  this  ambition  under  control. 
Intoxicated  by  victory,  by  the  prestige  which 
victory  had  given  her,  and  of  which  her 
commerce,  her  industry,  her  science  even,  had 
reaped  the  benefit,  Germany  plunged  into 
a  material  prosperity  such  as  she  had  never 
known,  such  as  she  would  never  have  dared 
to  dream  of.  She  told  herself  that  if  force 
had  wrought  this  miracle,  if  force  had  given 
her  riches  and  honour,  it  was  because  force 
had  within  it  a  hidden  virtue,  mysterious — 


28  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

nay,  divine.  Yes,  brute  force  with  its  train 
of  trickery  and  lies,  when  it  comes  with 
powers  of  attack  sufficient  for  the  conquest 
of  the  world,  must  needs  be  in  direct  line 
from  heaven  and  a  revelation  of  the  will  of 
God  on  earth.  The  people  to  whom  this 
power  of  attack  had  come  were  the  elect,  a 
chosen  race  by  whose  side  the  others  are  races 
of  bondmen.  To  such  a  race  nothing  is  for- 
bidden that  may  help  in  establishing  its 
dominion.  Let  none  speak  to  it  of  inviolable 
right !  Right  is  what  is  written  in  a  treaty ; 
a  treaty  is  what  registers  the  will  of  a 
conqueror — that  is,  the  direction  of  his  force 
for  the  time  being :  force,  then,  and  right  are 
the  same  thing ;  and  if  force  is  pleased  to 
take  a  new  direction,  the  old  right  becomes 
ancient  history  and  the  treaty,  which  backed 
it  with  a  solemn  undertaking,  no  more  than  a 
scrap  of  paper.  Thus  Germany,  struck  with 
wonder  in  presence  of  her  victories,  of  the 
brute  force  which  had  been  their  means,  of 
the  material  prosperity  which  was  the  out- 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  29 

come,  translated  her  amazement  into  an  idea. 
And  see  how,  at  the  call  of  this  idea,  a 
thousand  thoughts,  as  if  awaked  from  slumber, 
and  shaking  off  the  dust  of  libraries,  came 
rushing  in  from  every  side — thoughts  which 
Germany  had  suffered  to  sleep  among  her 
poets  and  philosophers,  every  one  which  could 
lend  a  seductive  or  striking  form  to  a  con- 
viction already  made!  Henceforth  German 
imperialism  had  a  theory  of  its  own.  Taught 
in  schools  and  universities,  it  easily  moulded 
to  itself  a  nation  already  broken-in  to  passive 
obedience  and  having  no  loftier  ideal  where- 
with to  oppose  the  official  doctrine.  Many 
persons  have  explained  the  aberrations  of 
German  policy  as  due  to  that  theory.  For 
my  part,  I  see  in  it  nothing  more  than  a  philo- 
sophy doomed  to  translate  into  ideas  what 
was,  in  its  essence,  insatiable  ambition  and 
will  perverted  by  pride.  The  doctrine  is  an 
effect  rather  than  a  cause ;  and  should  the  day 
come  when  Germany,  conscious  of  her  moral 
humiliation,  shall  say,  to  excuse  herself,  that 


30  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

she  had  trusted  herself  too  much  to  certain 
theories,  that  an  error  of  judgment  is  not  a 
crime,  it  will  then  be  necessary  to  remind  her 
that  her  philosophy  was  simply  a  translation 
into  intellectual  terms  of  her  brutality,  her 
appetites,  and  her  vices.  So,  too,  in  most 
cases,  doctrines  are  the  means  by  which 
nations  and  individuals  seek  to  explain  what 
they  are  and  what  they  do.  Germany,  having 
finally  become  a  predatory  nation,  invokes 
Hegel  as  witness ;  just  as  a  Germany 
enamoured  of  moral  beauty  would  have 
declared  herself  faithful  to  Kant,  just  as  a 
sentimental  Germany  would  have  found  her 
tutelary  genius  in  Jacobi  or  Schopenhauer. 
Had  she  leaned  in  any  other  direction  and 
been  unable  to  find  at  home  the  philosophy 
she  needed,  she  would  have  procured  it  from 
abroad.  Thus  when  she  wished  to  convince 
herself  that  predestined  races  exist,  she  took 
from  France,  that  she  might  hoist  him  into 
celebrity,  a  writer  whom  we  have  not  read — 
Gobineau. 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  31 

None  the  less  is  it  true  that  perverse 
ambition,  once  erected  into  theory,  feels 
more  at  ease  in  working  itself  out  to  the 
end;  a  part  of  the  responsibility  will  then 
be  thrown  upon  logic.  If  the  German  race 
is  the  elect,  it  will  be  the  only  race  which 
has  an  unconditional  right  to  live;  the 
others  will  be  tolerated  races,  and  this 
toleration  will  be  precisely  what  is  called 
"the  state  of  peace."  Let  war  come;  the 
annihilation  of  the  enemy  will  be  the  end 
Germany  has  to  pursue.  She  will  not 
strike  at  combatants  only;  she  will  mas- 
sacre women,  children,  old  men;  she  will 
pillage  and  burn;  the  ideal  will  be  to  destroy 
towns,  villages,  the  whole  population.  Such 
is  the  conclusion  of  the  theory.  Now  we 
come  to  its  aim  and  true  principle. 

As  long  as  war  was  no  more  than  a  means 
to  the  settlement  of  a  dispute  between  two 
nations,  the  conflict  was  localized  to  the  two 
armies  involved.  More  and  more  of  useless 
violence  was  eliminated;  innocent  popula- 


32  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

tions  were  kept  outside  the  quarrel.  Thus 
little  by  little  a  code  of  war  was  drawn  up. 
From  the  first,  however,  the  Prussian  army, 
organized  as  it  was  for  conquest,  did  not  take 
kindly  to  this  law.  But  from  the  time  when 
Prussian  militarism,  now  turned  into  German 
militarism,  had  become  one  with  industrialism, 
it  was  the  enemy's  industry,  his  commerce, 
the  sources  of  his  wealth,  his  wealth  itself,  as 
well  as  his  military  power,  which  war  must 
now  make  the  end  in  view.  His  factories 
must  be  destroyed  that  his  competition  may 
be  suppressed.  Moreover,  that  he  may  be 
impoverished  once  and  for  all  and  the 
aggressor  enriched,  his  towns  must  be  put  to 
ransom,  pillaged,  and  burned.  Above  all 
must  the  war  be  short,  not  only  in  order  that 
the  economic  life  of  Germany  might  not  suffer 
too  much,  but  further,  and  chiefly,  because 
her  military  power  lacked  that  consciousness 
of  a  right  superior  to  force  by  which  she 
could  sustain  and  recuperate  her  energies. 
Her  moral  force,  being  only  the  pride  which 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  33 

comes  from  material  force,  would  be  exposed 
to  the  same  vicissitudes  as  this  latter:  in 
proportion  as  the  one  was  being  expended  the 
other  would  be  used  up.  Time  for  moral 
force  to  become  used  up  must  not  be  given. 
The  machine  must  deliver  its  blow  all  at  once. 
And  this  it  could  do  by  terrorizing  the  popu- 
lation, and  so  paralysing  the  nation.  To 
achieve  that  end,  no  scruple  must  be  suffered 
to  embarrass  the  play  of  its  wheels.  Hence  a 
system  of  atrocities  prepared  in  advance — a 
system  as  sagaciously  put  together  as  the 
machine  itself. 

Such  is  the  explanation  of  the  spectacle 
before  us.  "Scientific  barbarism,"  "sys- 
tematic barbarism,"  are  phrases  we  have 
heard.  Yes,  barbarism  reinforced  by  the 
capture  of  civilization.  Throughout  the 
course  of  the  history  we  have  been  follow- 
ing there  is,  as  it  were,  the  continuous 
clang  of  militarism  and  industrialism,  of 
machinery  and  mechanism,  of  debased  moral 
materialism. 


34  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

Many  years  hence,  when  the  reaction  of  the 
past  shall  have  left  only  the  grand  outline  in 
view,  this  perhaps  is  how  a  philosopher  will 
speak  of  it.  He  will  say  that  the  idea,  peculiar 
to  the  nineteenth  century,  of  employing  science 
in  the  satisfaction  of  our  material  wants  had 
given  a  wholly  unforeseen  extension  to  the 
mechanical  arts  and  had  equipped  man  in  less 
than  fifty  years  with  more  tools  than  he  had 
made  during  the  thousands  of  years  he  had 
lived  on  the  earth.  Each  new  machine  being 
for  man  a  new  organ — an  artificial  organ 
which  merely  prolongs  the  natural  organs — 
his  body  became  suddenly  and  prodigiously 
increased  in  size,  without  his  soul  being  able 
at  the  same  time  to  dilate  to  the  dimensions 
of  his  new  body.  From  this  disproportion 
there  issued  the  problems,  moral,  social,  inter- 
national, which  most  of  the  nations  endea- 
voured to  solve  by  filling  up  the  soulless  void 
in  the  body  politic  by  creating  more  liberty, 
more  fraternity,  more  justice  than  the  world 
had  ever  seen.  Now,  while  mankind  laboured 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  35 

at  this  task  of  spiritualization,  inferior  powers 
— I  was  going  to  say  infernal  powers — plotted 
an  inverse  experience  for  mankind.  What 
would  happen  if  the  mechanical  forces,  which 
science  had  brought  to  a  state  of  readiness 
for  the  service  of  man,  should  themselves  take 
possession  of  man  in  order  to  make  his  nature 
material  as  their  own  ?  What  kind  of  a  world 
would  it  be  if  this  mechanism  should  seize 
the  human  race  entire,  and  if  the  peoples, 
instead  of  raising  themselves  to  a  richer  and 
more  harmonious  diversity,  as  persons  may 
do,  were  to  fall  into  the  uniformity  of  things  ? 
What  kind  of  a  society  would  that  be  which 
should  mechanically  obey  a  word  of  command 
mechanically  transmitted  ;  which  should  rule 
its  science  and  its  conscience  in  accordance 
therewith  ;  and  which  should  lose,  along  with 
the  sense  of  justice,  the  power  to  discern 
between  truth  and  falsehood  ?  What  would 
mankind  be  when  brute  force  should  hold  the 
place  of  moral  force  ?  What  new  barbarism, 
this  time  final,  would  arise  from  these  con- 


36  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

ditions  to  stifle  feeling,  ideas,  and  the  whole 
civilization  of  which  the  old  barbarism  con- 
tained the  germ  ?  What  would  happen,  in 
short,  if  the  moral  effort  of  humanity  should 
turn  in  its  tracks  at  the  moment  of  attaining 
its  goal,  and  if  some  diabolical  contrivance 
should  cause  it  to  produce  the  mechanization 
of  spirit  instead  of  the  spiritualization  of 
matter?  There  was  a  people  predestined  to 
try  the  experiment.  Prussia  had  been  mili- 
tarized by  her  kings ;  Germany  had  been 
militarized  by  Prussia ;  a  powerful  nation 
was  on  the  spot  marching  forward  in  mecha- 
nical order.  Administration  and  military 
mechanism  were  only  waiting  to  make  alliance 
with  industrial  mechanism.  The  combination 
once  made,  a  formidable  machine  would  come 
into  existence.  A  touch  upon  the  starting- 
gear  and  the  other  nations  would  be  dragged 
in  the  wake  of  Germany,  subjects  to  the  same 
movement,  prisoners  of  the  same  mechanism. 
Such  would  be  the  meaning  of  the  war  on  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  37 

day  when  Germany  should  decide  upon  its 
declaration. 

She  decided,  he  will  continue,  but  the  result 
was  very  different  from  what  had  been  pre- 
dicted. For  the  moral  forces,  which  were  to 
submit  to  the  forces  of  matter  by  their  side, 
suddenly  revealed  themselves  as  creators  of 
material  force.  A  simple  idea,  the  heroic 
conception  which  a  small  people  had  formed 
of  its  honour,  enabled  it  to  make  head  against 
a  powerful  empire.  At  the  cry  of  outraged 
justice  we  saw,  moreover,  in  a  nation  which 
till  then  had  trusted  in  its  fleet,  one  million, 
two  millions  of  soldiers  suddenly  rise  from 
the  earth.  A  yet  greater  miracle  :  in  a  nation 
thought  to  be  mortally  divided  against  itself 
all  became  brothers  in  the  space  of  a  day. 
From  that  moment  the  issue  of  the  conflict 
was  not  open  to  doubt.  On  the  one  side, 
there  was  force  spread  out  on  the  surface ; 
on  the  other,  there  was  force  in  the  depths. 
On  one  side,  mechanism,  the  manufactured 


38  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

article  which -cannot  repair  its  own  injuries; 
on  the  other,  life,  the  power  of  creation 
which  makes  and  remakes  itself  at  every 
instant.  On  one  side,  that  which  uses  itself 
up ;  on  the  other,  that  which  does  not  use 
itself  up. 

Indeed,  our  philosopher  will  conclude,  the 
machine  did  use  itself  up.  For  a  long  time 
it  resisted;  then  it  bent;  then  it  broke. 
Alas!  it  had  crushed  under  it  a  multitude  of 
our  children ;  and  over  the  fate  of  this  young 
life,  which  was  so  naturally  and  purely  heroic, 
our  tears  will  continue  to  fall.  An  implacable 
law  decrees  that  spirit  must  encounter  the 
resistance  of  matter,  that  life  cannot  advance 
without  bruising  that  which  lives,  and  that 
great  moral  results  are  purchased  by  much 
blood  and  by  many  tears.  But  this  time  the 
sacrifice  was  to  be  rich  in  fruit  as  it  had  been 
rich  in  beauty.  That  the  powers  of  death 
might  be  matched  against  life  in  one  supreme 
combat,  destiny  had  gathered  them  all  at  a 
single  point.  And  behold  how  death  was 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  39 

conquered;  how  humanity  was  saved  by 
material  suffering  from  the  moral  downfall 
which  would  have  been  its  end;  while  the 
peoples,  joyful  in  their  desolation,  raised  on 
high  the  song  of  deliverance  from  the  depths 
of  ruin  and  of  grief ! 


THE  FORCE  WHICH  WASTES 

AND  THAT  WHICH  DOES 

NOT  WASTE 


THE  FORCE  WHICH  WASTES 

AND  THAT  WHICH  DOES 

NOT  WASTE 

THE  issue  of  the  struggle  is  not  doubtful. 
Germany  will  succumb.  Material  force  and 
moral  force,  all  which  is  sustaining  her,  will 
end  by  failing  her,  because  she  is  living  on 
provision  she  has  accumulated,  is  spending 
it,  and  has  no  way  of  renewing  it. 

Of  her  material  resources  all  is  known. 
She  has  money,  but  her  credit  is  falling,  and 
one  does  not  see  where  she  is  to  borrow. 
She  needs  nitrates  for  her  explosives,  fuel  for 
her  motors,  bread  for  her  sixty-five  million 
inhabitants,  for  all  of  which  she  has  made 
provision;  but  the  day  will  come  when  her 

43 


44  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

granaries  will  be  empty  and  her  tanks  dry. 
How  will  she  refill  them?  War,  as  she 
practises  it,  makes  frightful  havoc  of  her 
warriors.  Yet  here  again  replenishment  is 
impossible,  no  aid  will  come  from  without, 
because  an  enterprise  launched  with  the  object 
of  imposing  German  rule,  German  "culture," 
German  products,  only  interests  and  ever  will 
only  interest  what  is  already  German.  Such 
is  the  situation  of  Germany  confronted  by  a 
France  who  is  keeping  her  credit  intact  and 
her  ports  open,  who  is  procuring  herself 
victual  and  munitions  as  she  pleases,  who 
reinforces  her  armies  with  all  that  her  allies 
bring  to  her  support,  and  who  can  count  on 
the  ever  more  active  sympathy  of  the  civilized 
world  because  her  cause  is  that  of  humanity 
itself. 

Still  this  is  only  material  force,  the  force 
which  is  seen.  What  can  we  say  of  moral 
force,  the  force  which  is  not  seen,  which 
yet  matters  most  since  it  can  in  a  certain 
degree  make  good  what  is  lacking  of  the 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  45 

other,  and  without  which  the  other  is  worth- 
less? 

The  moral  energy  of  nations,  as  of  in- 
dividuals, is  only  sustained  by  an  ideal 
higher  than  themselves,  and  stronger  than 
themselves,  to  which  they  cling  firmly  when 
they  feel  their  courage  waver.  Where  is  the 
ideal  of  the  Germany  of  to-day?  The  time 
when  her  philosophers  proclaimed  the  in- 
violability of  right,  the  eminent  dignity  of 
the  person,  the  duty  of  mutual  respect  among 
nations,  is  no  more.  Germany,  militarized  by 
Prussia,  has  cast  aside  those  noble  ideas,  ideas 
she  received  for  the  most  part  from  the  France 
of  the  eighteenth  century  and  of  the  Revo- 
lution. She  has  made  for  herself  a  new  soul, 
or  rather  she  has  meekly  accepted  the  soul 
Bismarck  has  given  her.  To  him  has  been 
attributed  the  famous  maxim  "  Might  is 
right."  But  in  truth  Bismarck  never  pro- 
nounced it,  for  he  had  well  guarded  himself 
against  a  distinction  of  right  from  might. 
Right  was  simply  in  his  view  what  is  willed 


46  THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR 

by  the  strongest,  what  is  consigned  by  the  con- 
queror in  the  law  he  imposes  on  the  conquered. 
In  that  is  summed  up  his  whole  morality. 
Germany  to-day  knows  no  other.  She,  too, 
worships  brute  force.  And  because  she  be- 
lieves herself  the  strongest,  she  is  altogether 
absorbed  in  self-adoration.  Her  energy  comes 
from  her  pride.  Her  moral  force  is  only  the 
confidence  which  her  material  force  inspires 
in  her.  And  this  means  that  in  this  respect 
she  is  living  on  reserves  without  means  of 
replenishment.  Even  before  England  had 
commenced  to  blockade  her  coasts  she  had 
blockaded  herself  morally,  in  isolating  herself 
from  every  ideal  capable  of  giving  her  new 
life. 

So  she  will  see  her  forces  waste  and  her 
courage  at  the  same  time.  But  the  energy  of 
our  soldiers  is  drawn  from  something  which 
does  not  waste,  from  an  ideal  of  justice  and 
freedom.  Time  has  no  hold  on  us.  To  the 
force  which  feeds  only  on  its  own  brutality 
we  are  opposing  that  which  seeks  outside 


THE  MEANING  OF  THE  WAR  47 

and  above  itself  a  principle  of  life  and 
renovation.  Whilst  the  one  is  gradually 
spending  itself,  the  other  is  continually 
remaking  itself.  The  one  is  already  waver- 
ing, the  other  abides  unshaken.  Have  no 
fear,  our  force  will  slay  theirs. 


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